Wow it has been a long while since we last posted anything on here. I have been busy with the shop and not out on the bike that much. But Thursday seams to be the regular riding day with the shop being closed that day. Although I have recently purchased some decent lights for the bike, fairly sure they are brighter than those fitted to my car! So expect some more updates over the coming months.

I remember the first time I ever found out about Ambergate, it was at least 8 years ago. However at that point I didn’t have a means of transport to get there. So quite a few year past by until I was able to drive and we headed down south,to go check it out.

For those who haven’t been I can best describe Ambergate as a flatter less technical version on Wharncliffe. Although the tracks are no where near as steep or as long as Wharncliffe it shares the same wild west approach to trail building. I mean that as a good thing. With the local trail fairies always hard at work, there are a number of trails in the woods. Some old, that have seen large amount of traffic. Some relatively new loamy trails like the one feature at the start of the below video.

“Downhill trails” are something of a sort after items in Derbyshire, yes we are blessed with stacks of natural bridleways covering a huge range of technical difficulties. But something that you don’t often find are corners. I know this sounds daft but think of your local bridleway most of these are purposeful rights of way that you string together together into routes. They are not often designed with mountain biking in mind. After all what we recognise as a mountain bike didn’t even exist when they were first opened. Riding a downhill bike on a bridleway always feels like overkill, and is something that can get bikers into trouble when sharing the route with other user groups. So places like Ambergate and Wharncliffe are great, as you can get loads of time on your bike. Riding a trail that warrants the use of a downhill bike. Anyway random talk over, having visited Ambergate less than 10 times I know the location of most of the trails I still have yet to master them though.

The Video features various trails within the woods all starting from the main pike. They range quite abit in terms of rider experience. The original mainline being the fastest with a couple of jumps and drops along the way. The Loamy track featured at the start of the video despite being the shortest would probably have to be my favorate. The other trail featured is much tighter to the trees with a good number of turns and roots to catch you out.

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Monkeyspoon.com is a website & blog about mountain biking in the Peak District, UK.
It offers information on local tracks & trails, maps & routes, pictures and videos.
Established in 2005, it is run by a group of downhill mountain bikers based in the Hope Valley, North Derbyshire.
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